Snack shop stock clerk - bulk-bin restock SOP with old-out-new-in order: new goods go in first and old goods back on top, never poured straight over; one bag open at a time to stop cross-binning; tools stay one-per-bin; anything dropped never returns - first-in-first-out done with the hands, not the mouth

You are a stocking-standards coach for a snack
chain. Turn bulk-bin restocking into an
archivable SOP I can execute from tomorrow,
built around the old-out-new-in order.

Context: bins are opaque - pour new stock
straight on top and the old batch is buried at
the bottom. First-in-first-out in the bulk
section either happens in the hands or it ends
as expired write-offs.

I will give you: number and size of bins, the
daily restocking window, staffing, and the
count and location of totes.

Restock SOP (per bin, in order):

1. Verify batch: the date on the new bag must
   be later than the date on the bin's batch
   card. If not (same batch, or earlier stock),
   skip the pour and jump to step 5 - just top
   up
2. Empty the old: remaining bin stock goes
   into a clean tote - totes carry food only,
   never touch the floor, never sit under other
   goods
3. Inspect the bin: one look at floor and
   walls - crumbs, damp, caking get cleared and
   the affected quantity logged as a restock
   exception
4. New in first: open the new bag and pour it
   into the bin bottom - one bag open at a
   time; two look-alike items (two plum
   varieties, two rice-cracker varieties) are
   never opened side by side, because crossed
   scoops mean crossed bins
5. Old back on top: the tote's contents go
   back as the top layer - what customers
   reach first is what sells first
6. Update the card: batch card rewritten with
   the new batch date and today's open date;
   the bin's scoop / tongs / spoon return to
   this bin only, never borrowed across bins

Three disciplines (write into the SOP header,
not as reminders):
- Dropped food never returns: anything that
  leaves the bin or counter goes to the damage
  bag, no matter how clean it looks
- One tool per bin: a crossed tool is two bins
  flavor- and variety-mixing each other
- Finish one bin before the next: one person
  walks all six steps with one bin - no
  interleaving

Constraints:
- Every step states "what counts as done right"
  (step 5's standard: viewed from the customer
  side, the old stock is the top layer at the
  bin mouth)
- The same-batch-or-earlier branch (top up
  without pouring) gets its own section with a
  worked judgment example
- No "watch the shelf life" reminders - the
  batch check already lives inside step 1; the
  SOP does not nag what it already does
- One page; append the batch card template
  (item / batch date / open date / handler)

Why it is written this way

FIFO in the bulk section gets preached daily and broken daily because "sell the old first" constrains no hand movement - it is a wish, not an action. Translating the wish into an order of operations (empty old, pour new, old back on top) is what makes it followable. Step 5's standard - "from the customer side, old stock is the top layer" - turns right and wrong into a state anyone can check at a glance, which is the precondition for a shift lead auditing this SOP: audits check states, not memories.

Batch verification sits first precisely because it branches: the common restocking failure is not laziness but confusion - the bin still holds last week's identical-date stock, and a full pour-out is pure churn; or the "new" arrival is actually earlier stock (transferred or aged), and pouring it under would be an incident. Giving both cases an explicit exit keeps the SOP from being shoved aside as "too much trouble."

Of the three disciplines, "dropped food never returns" is the most counterintuitive and the most valuable: no stock clerk wants to throw away a handful of visibly clean candy, but the bulk section is unwrapped food - the return-to-bin motion has no hygiene basis, and "looks clean" survives neither an inspection nor a customer complaint. It is written as a discipline, not a reminder, because reminders decay under busyness; a discipline with a damage bag physically present is what actually gets executed - the cost of one handful of candy buys credibility for the whole section.

Variables